Background: Population health is rapidly emerging as a financially material issue for institutional investors, yet it remains significantly underdeveloped compared to climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion in mainstream investment practice. This session presents findings from Investor Action on Health: A Review (Northeastern University / Health Foundation, February 2026), a systematic review of how asset owners and asset managers can use corporate engagement, ESG ratings, board oversight, and policy engagement to influence company behaviour across 15 priority health issues - from worker safety and nutrition to antimicrobial resistance and digital wellbeing. Drawing on lessons from the evolution of investor action on climate and EDI, the talk introduces a practical framework for matching investor action mechanisms to the maturity of specific health issues and discusses the challenges and opportunities investors face in demonstrating financial materiality and attributing impact. This session will be of interest to finance and investment professionals, policymakers, and anyone keen to understand how the investment community can be a force for better public health.

Speaker:

Dr Sabina Crowe is Head of Economics & Associate Professor in Economics at Northeastern University London where she teaches first-year courses in International Business, Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. Over the last eight years she has worked in international education and higher education in a variety of roles and contexts. Sabina has taught several Economics related courses at higher education institutions in France, China and the UK, including SOAS, UCL and Birkbeck, University of London.

Sabina received her master’s degree in Economic Analysis and Policy from University of Nantes, France in 2010 and her PhD in Economics from SOAS, University of London in 2020.

Prior to her appointment at Northeastern University London, Sabina spent several years in China. Receiver of two China Scholarship Council grants, she learnt Mandarin Chinese at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In addition to her language studies, she worked as an Economics and Mathematics instructor and teaching assistant at several local institutions and also conducted extensive fieldwork in the field of sustainable food consumption. Moreover, she is fluent in English and French and possesses intermediate Mandarin Chinese language skills.